Electrochemical Treatment Of Substrates

Abstract

A method of electrochemically treating a substrate is provided comprising the steps of: (a) providing an electrolyte in contact with the substrate; (b) providing a device which faces the substrate and is in contact with the electrolyte, the device having: (i) a common first electrode arranged to define cells therein; and (ii) a plurality of individually addressable second electrodes, wherein a plurality of the cells contain individually addressable second electrodes; and (c) altering the potential of at least one of the second electrodes relative to the common first electrode so that: (i) the common first electrode generates a first redox product; and (ii) the at least one of the second electrodes generate a second redox product which is able to modify a region of the substrate facing the at least one electrodes, wherein the electrolyte is such that the second redox product is quenchable by the first redox product.

Description

[0001]All documents cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]This invention is in the field of electrochemical patterning of substrates. More particularly, this invention relates to a method of electrochemically modifying substrates and to a device that may be used in such methods.BACKGROUND ART[0003]There are many occasions where it is required to provide a pattern of a material on a substrate. Examples of such patterned substrates include semiconductor chips and devices on printed circuit boards. More recently, patterns of oligonucleotides bound to a solid surface have been produced to form DNA chips. DNA chips comprise arrays of various DNA sequences bound to a substrate at specific sites.[0004]Various methods of fabricating patterned substrates exist. Photolithography is an example of such a method. In photolithography, specific regions of a substrate surface are covered with a photolithographic mask and the exposed regions are modified b...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0020]Electrochemical patterning at high resolution is achieved by the method of the present invention. By having a common first electrode arranged to define cells, the method dispenses with the requirement of individually addressing a number of different first electrodes in proximity to the second electrode in order to control diffusion of the second redox product by the quenching process. The arrangement of the common first electrode in relation to the second electrodes simplifies the electrical connections and the electronics required to pattern a substrate at very high resolution. Moreover, because of the decrease in electrical connections required for the common first electrode compared with prior art devices, a higher density of second electrodes may be provided, thereby enabling patterning of a substrate at very high resolution. This arrangement of electrodes also has the advantage that by having a common first electrode the number of transistors required to operate the device may be significantly reduced thereby lowering device fabrication costs, since the cost of the device is generally dependent on the number of transistors. Further advantages of having a common first electrode are that power consumption can be reduced, which enables more frequent use of low power electronics, and that the device does not require synchronisation between the cathode and anode switching.

[0124]Multiple substrates may be used simultaneously with a device of the invention. For example, glass slides can be tiled over a large device of the invention. Typically, the second electrodes of the device may be switched on and off in a sequence that produces the same pattern on each of the multiple substrates. In this way, a number of identically patterned substrates may be produced in a single process, thereby increasing the throughput and efficiency of the product production.

Problems solved by technology

However, a bulk solution containing a buffering or scavenging substance has the disadvantage of quenching not only those reagents that diffuse away from specific electrodes, but also reagents which are intended to react at a substrate adjacent to a specific electrode.

However, as the number of electrodes on a device increases, it becomes more difficult and costly to connect each electrode independently.

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